Syria conflict

International inspectors will get to work destroying Syria’s chemical arsenal by next week, once a document drawn up to avert military strikes is agreed by the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons on Friday.

The United States and China are in strong agreement on the need for the 15-member UN Security Council to quickly adopt a mandatory and binding resolution on eradicating Syria's chemical weapons arsenal, a senior US official said.

As diplomats at the United Nations push for a peace conference to end Syria's civil war, a collection of some of the country's most powerful rebel groups publicly abandoned the opposition's political leaders, casting their lot with an affiliate of al-Qaeda.

Syrian opposition groups and international relief organisations are warning of the risk of mass starvation across the country, especially in the besieged Damascus suburbs where a gas attack killed hundreds last month.

Foreign Minister Wang Yi told UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon that China was willing to send experts to help in the destruction of Syrian chemical weapons, and reiterated that a political solution was the only way to solve the crisis in Syria.

Nearly a year before the world woke up to images of Syrians dying in a chemical weapons attack, Samantha Power was quietly pushing US President Barack Obama for a military strike to stop the "grotesque tactics" of President Bashar al-Assad. For a fleeting moment this month, it seemed she had prevailed.

Iranian President Hassan Rowhani has urged world leaders to "seize the opportunity" presented by his election to engage Iran in constructive dialogue and said his country is ready to facilitate talks between the Syrian government and the opposition.

Syrian warplanes and artillery bombarded rebel suburbs of the capital on Sunday after the United States agreed to call off military action in a deal with Russia to remove President Bashar al-Assad’s chemical weapons.